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Food for Thought: Sugar tax could bite into your sweet tooth
CW39 ^ | 11/10/14

Posted on 11/17/2014 9:50:50 AM PST by John David Powell

HOUSTON, Texas – If you guzzle a lot of soft drinks, you know, carbonated colas, well, you could be paying a little more for all that sugar.

And when you do, you can thank the gentle woman from Connecticut, Rosa Delauro.

Rep. Delauro (D-CT) is responsible for the “Sugar Sweetened Beverages Tax Act” or just the “Sweet Act” if you prefer the lite version.

She wants congress to put an extra tax on drinks that contain sugar or any other sweetener with calories.

It would be just a penny per teaspoon, but that could end up adding about 15 cents for every 20-ounce bottle of pop, and around 10-billion dollars into the pockets of Uncle Sam.

Do the math: at a penny a teaspoon, you would need 1 trillion teaspoons to come up with $10 billion.

And that would have Delauro doing a happy dance, because she wants to use the extra money for programs she says will cut the cost of diabetes, and dental problems related to sugar.

The money would also help reduce the costs connected to obesity that add about $190 billion a year to the nation’s healthcare bill, and that comes to about 600 bucks for every man, woman, and child in America.

Here’s something else to think about while drinking your next cold soda: Just how much is 1 trillion teaspoons of sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or low-calorie sweetener?

Going back to the old blackboard, we find that a trillion teaspoons make about 130.2 million gallons of sweet stuff.

And if we had 130 million gallons of fuel, we could fill up about one-fourth of all registered vehicles in Harris County.

That’s not only a lot of sugar just from sweet drinks, it’s also some more food for thought.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: sodas; sugar; sweeteners; tax

1 posted on 11/17/2014 9:50:50 AM PST by John David Powell
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To: John David Powell

Here in NYS, we’ve been taxing that stuff for years. One of the newest taxes, IIRC, is on bottled water. Of course, add the bottle “fee” to your bill. Gotta love NY!! NOT


2 posted on 11/17/2014 9:53:04 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: John David Powell
She wants congress to put an extra tax on drinks that contain sugar or any other sweetener with calories.

Well, she has ignited the ire of both the Sugar Lobby and the Corn Lobby at the same time. This will not go anywhere.....................

3 posted on 11/17/2014 9:53:44 AM PST by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: John David Powell

These piecemeal taxes have nothing to do with health.

Anyone who permits a new tax on anything is out of their minds. On anything.


4 posted on 11/17/2014 9:55:43 AM PST by Noamie
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To: John David Powell

http://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/candy_and_confectionery.htm


5 posted on 11/17/2014 9:56:30 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: John David Powell
Democrats look upon other human beings as sources of revenue.

Period.

6 posted on 11/17/2014 9:56:38 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Any energy source that requires a subsidy is, by definition, "unsustainable.")
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To: John David Powell

Uncle Sam does not need the money.

These assessments on Christmas Trees and stuff sure sound a lot like unconstitutional national sales taxes to me


7 posted on 11/17/2014 9:59:37 AM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: John David Powell

This has zero chance of getting out of Congress now. If you drink that much soda where you would have to worry about this you’re most likely a fat ass. Sugar is about the worst. I’ve seen many people shed a LOT of weight just by cutting soda out of their diet.


8 posted on 11/17/2014 10:03:39 AM PST by Minsc
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To: John David Powell

An elitist tax. Notice she is not lobbying for a tax on creme brulee or fancy Starbucks drinks filled with syrup.

Just soda. What the poor typically drink for a treat. Cheap, tasty, refreshing.

I don’t drink sugar soda but twice a year, so I am not posting in “my own defense.” I find the attitude behind such propositions sickening. Yuppies can go to the food trucks and buy $8 organic custard ice creams and feel all holy about taxing the poor’s $1 soda pop.


9 posted on 11/17/2014 10:11:18 AM PST by Persevero (Come on 2016)
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To: John David Powell

So,if Delauro is proposing a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks,then am I to assume she is favorable towards the poisonous artificial sweeteners which are much worse?


10 posted on 11/17/2014 10:23:54 AM PST by oldtech
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To: oldtech
then am I to assume she is favorable towards the poisonous artificial sweeteners which are much worse?

Good grief. Neither sugar or artificial sweeteners are bad for you. But this tax is absolutely bad for everyone. Unless you support this particular tax as a legitimate way to make people healthier?

11 posted on 11/17/2014 11:16:35 AM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: John David Powell
And when you do, you can thank the gentle woman from Connecticut, Rosa Delauro.

Assumes facts not in evidence.

I'd place my bets on "escaped harpy from Pandora's box", but I suppose that it could just as well be some other type of malevolent fiend...

12 posted on 11/17/2014 11:16:53 AM PST by Zeppo ("Happy Pony is on - and I'm NOT missing Happy Pony")
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To: John David Powell
An immutable law of economics is that taxing a good or product will retard consumption and a good or product which is subsidized will increase its consumption.

Subsidizing the poor will ensure more poor, and taxing production stifles productivity. This is why the democrat economic schemes are backwards; they punish profit and reward parasites.

So I purpose a tax on laziness, liberalism and stupidity, and that we subsidize, in the form of lower taxes, productivity. This is paid dollar for dollar so every billion collected in the new tax is the reduction of taxes back to the producers. In essence, take from the leaches and give to the host in order to have more production and fewer leeches. Under this proposal, proposing taxing products that some do-gooder doesn't like would trigger both the stupidity tax and the liberal tax, resulting in subsidy to sugar growers and soft drink producers. Which in turn would allow the producers to hire more workers from the leech roles, who in turn would buy more soft drinks and smart phones increasing production in nearly every market segment except the government poverty pimping sector.

13 posted on 11/17/2014 11:19:28 AM PST by DaveyB
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14 posted on 11/17/2014 11:21:49 AM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: John David Powell

Rosa DeLauro needs to have an ugly tax if anyone seen her picture... she makes Ruth Buzzi look beautiful...


15 posted on 11/17/2014 12:13:19 PM PST by ExCTCitizen (I'm ExCTCitizen and I approve this reply. If it does offend Libs, I'm NOT sorry...)
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To: oldtech

Baloney. I’ve been drinking aspartame sweetened drinks for years to no ill effects whatsoever.


16 posted on 11/17/2014 12:24:14 PM PST by Sparklite
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To: John David Powell

How about we put a tax on UGLY...and Rosa DiLauro is one UGLY woman.


17 posted on 11/17/2014 12:30:32 PM PST by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: John David Powell

instead of a “sugar tax,
How about just stop subsidizing big Florida sugar?
We par big sugar about a dime subsidy for every pound they make all the while big sugar is polluting the hell out of Florida.


18 posted on 11/17/2014 1:42:04 PM PST by Joe Boucher (The F.B.I. Is a division of holders Justice Dept. (Nuff said))
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To: John David Powell

Why don’t they just stop subsidizing high fructose corn syrup?


19 posted on 11/17/2014 4:10:17 PM PST by grundle
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